Writing Tips – Editing Fiction Part 1—The Developmental Edit
“What’s wrong with my book?”
TL;DR: A developmental editor identifies what works and what doesn’t in a manuscript and helps the author to enhance it, to make it the best it can be, on a structural level. A developmental editor does not typically fix a manuscript’s problems. That job remains with the author.
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When I looked for an editor for my first book, a contemporary fantasy, I discovered that not all editing is the same, and I didn’t know which kind I needed.
So, I started with a Manuscript Evaluation where the editor, Marie Theresa Hussey, read my full manuscript (MS) and determined what was needed first. If you’re not sure about where to start or what you need, this is a great option. It’s cheaper than the other kinds of editing and shows you what the editor can do.
In my case, I paid to have a Developmental Edit done at the same time. This is also known as a structural edit, as it deals with the higher-level structure of the work. It is the first level of editing, occurring before the stylistic edit, the copyedit, and the proofread.
How is the book organized? My MS was in a common three-act structure, and the scenes flowed well from one to the next, but the story itself wandered around without a clear direction. The editor asked me point blank what my purpose was. What message was I trying to convey with the book? What were my themes? I had a problem with my story arc.
Who is the audience? A book needs to be aimed at someone, the ideal reader. It would be lovely if everyone bought it, but it’s impossible to aim a book at everyone. My primary audience was women in their 20s and 30s who love to escape through fantasy and adventure stories (and I acknowledge, that’s still a little vague). Is your MS for adults or children? If it’s for children, what age? Is it for baseball lovers or romance lovers?
Each genre of fiction carries expectations, things that must happen. There must be a mystery in a mystery story, and it should go unsolved until the climax or later. My book didn’t know what it wanted to be. Was it a revenge story? A coming of age? A mystery? I had a problem with my plot.
A developmental editor goes through the essential parts of story including plot, setting, character, point of view, as well as scene, inciting incident, conflict, and climax (and more). They consider all of these, comparing them to standard story and genre structures and looking for strengths and weaknesses. Then, they make recommendations to improve the story, to reflect the author’s purpose, to reach the author’s intended audience.
Switching to my editor hat: This is my favourite kind of editing because it gets into the elements that make a story tick. I get to work closely with an author and really dig into their purpose for the manuscript, what made them write it and what it means to them.
Post Script,
For editors: if you’d like a great read on developmental editing, check out Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers by Scott Norton. It’s meant for non-fiction but the newer edition has a chapter on fiction editing, and it’s just a really good book.